Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

Then, Cao Shi and Li Yuanniang seemed to remember for the first time that Li San's grandmother had a 500-mu estate. They thought that she would still have a large sum of money to spend by the end of the year, which was much better than Zhou Linlang's. Zhou Linlang ate and drank well every day. After so many years of marriage, with this kind of spending, she probably had spent almost all the money she had. After all, even if we don't say it was a lot, just based on Zhou Linlang's good life, she would spend 500 taels a year. After so many years, she must have spent several thousand taels. How much would Zhou Linlang have left?

On the contrary, Grandma Li San didn't need to touch the principal; just from the annual income from the estate and the subsidies from her family, she could live a better life than Zhou Linlang.

The thought that Zhou Linlang would soon be penniless like them, while Grandma Li would always have money, made them realize that they had confused the targets of their envy.

Not to mention that Consort Zhang would give Zhou Linlang money, even Li Sanlang and his wife had someone to subsidize them, namely Zhao Shi.

It should be noted that Cao had been keeping an eye on Zhao, so she knew that Zhao had secretly given money to Li Sanlang.

Although Zhao didn't have much money, she was still a lady of the house, and her monthly allowance alone was twenty taels, totaling two hundred and forty taels a year; her annual stipend was also two hundred and forty taels, which amounted to five hundred taels.

In addition, Master Li would definitely give Zhao some money, and Zhao would give Li Sanlang and his wife about five hundred taels a year. This was a considerable sum of money, not less than what Consort Zhang gave to Zhou Linlang and his wife. She didn't know how much Consort Zhang actually gave to Linlang and his wife, but she felt that five hundred taels was already a lot for Zhao. She guessed that Consort Zhang probably only gave Linlang and his wife that much, so she thought that way.

The thought of Li Sanlang and his wife being jealous of Zhou Linlang and his wife getting money from Consort Zhang, and how she formed an alliance with them to try and exclude Zhou Linlang and his wife, makes her realize that they also get money from Zhao Shi. They are even richer than Zhou Linlang. Her alliance with them to criticize Consort Zhang for favoring Zhou Linlang and his wife seems like a joke. After all, of the three families, only hers is poor. The other two families are richer than the other, especially Li Sanlang's family, who might even be richer than Zhou Linlang's family.

Thinking of this, Cao's opinion of Li San's grandmother changed, and she immediately told Li Yuanniang about it.

Li Yuanniang also thought so.

She also felt sorry for herself. Her grandmother didn't like her and wouldn't give her any money; her stepmother would never give her any money either; and when she was little, Aunt Cao had taken all her money. Only in the last two years, when she grew up, did Aunt Cao stop taking her money. She was practically penniless, unlike her eldest brother who had her grandmother to give her money, and her third brother who had his stepmother to give him money. So when Cao mentioned this to her, Li Yuanniang naturally shared her indignation and said, "They're just bullying us because we're illegitimate children. The legitimate children live such comfortable lives. Especially my third sister-in-law, she had a big dowry and lives a really good life."

"That's right, she's even more well-off than Zhou Linlang. Zhou Linlang doesn't own a manor, and she's been married into the family for so many years, yet she spends money extravagantly. I reckon she's probably almost run out of money. On the other hand, your third sister-in-law's money can generate more money, she always has money to spend, and she also receives subsidies from the madam. She's the real tycoon. She even complains about Zhang Niangniang with us, she's truly insatiable!"

Li Yuanniang also realized this and immediately said, "That's right. They took Madam's money, so why don't they say that Madam is biased towards them? They only say that Consort Zhang is biased towards Eldest Sister-in-law's family. I found that they are even more outrageous than Eldest Sister-in-law's family. At least Eldest Sister-in-law's family didn't go around saying that Madam is biased towards Third Sister-in-law's family, and didn't complain that Madam is biased towards Third Sister-in-law's family. But Third Sister-in-law's family goes around complaining that Consort Zhang is biased towards Eldest Sister-in-law's family. Their character is clearly different."

“That’s right, the third brother’s family is really greedy. We have nothing, so it’s right for them to complain. They’ve already been favored, and they’re still complaining. That means they want it all, that everyone should be given money, and that it’s wrong if they’re not given any. They’re really dreaming,” said Cao Shi. Li Yuanniang said dejectedly, “The key is that their money comes from Madam. They are Madam’s children, and we weren’t born to Madam. It’s reasonable for Madam to give it to them and not to us. Unlike my eldest brother and sister-in-law, we are all Zhang Niangniang’s grandchildren. Zhang Niangniang only gives it to them, and we can still complain. Now it’s my third brother and sister-in-law’s turn. They’ve clearly gotten the biggest advantage, and they’re the richest among us, but we can’t even complain about them. They’re much more carefree than my eldest brother’s family.”

Cao thought that this made perfect sense.

She tried to get people to complain about Zhou Linlang, and everyone responded enthusiastically. But if she tried to get people to complain about Zhao giving money to Li San's family, probably no one would respond. It's likely that everyone would think that Zhao was their biological mother, and it was perfectly reasonable for her to give money to Li San's family, so they had no right to complain.

The only people they could bring together to complain were Zhou Linlang and her husband, who hadn't received any subsidies from the Zhao family.

But they had just complained to Grandma Li about Linlang and her husband, and then they turned around and complained to Linlang and her husband about Grandma Li... It just didn't feel right, so the two of them didn't feel comfortable complaining to Linlang about Grandma Li and her husband.

Although they couldn't complain to Linlang about Grandma Li and her husband, they were furious every day watching them bring out stir-fried dishes from the main kitchen.

Because of the falling out with Grandma Li, they drifted further and further apart, and his attitude towards her began to turn sour.

Grandma Li didn't know why they were treating her badly. She thought it was because she wasn't treating them to food, drinks, or gifts, so they were unhappy. She got angry too, thinking that since she came into the house, these people had never treated her to food, drinks, or gifts; she was the one who always treated them. Now that she wasn't treating them, they were unhappy. They were really despicable.

So when Granny Li saw that Madam Cao and Li Yuanniang had walked away from her and even treated her badly, she was unhappy and also walked away from the two of them. This caused the relationship between the three parties to be even more strained than their relationship with Linlang. After all, on the surface, the three parties had no conflict with Linlang, but only discussed it in private. So on the surface, they still maintained contact, but it was just not close.

Linlang was speechless after seeing this. She realized that her prediction that the three of them would have a bad relationship by the end of the year when Grandma Li San became rich was wishful thinking. Their relationship broke down much earlier than she had imagined.

Although Grandma Li San's relationship with Cao Shi and Li Yuanniang had become distant, she did not get closer to Linlang either. After all, her husband Li Sanlang always resented Consort Zhang for favoring Li Yu the most and not liking him much, as she gave him too little. Therefore, he disliked Li Yu.

Since her husband disliked Li Yu, Third Grandma Li naturally had to follow him and couldn't get too close to Linlang and her husband, lest she displease her husband. (End of Chapter)